Bubba: More fun, less whine please?

Bubba Watson celebrates his birdie putt on the 18th green on his way to victory in the Northern Trust Open golf tournament at Riviera Country Club in the Pacific Palisades area of Los Angeles, Sunday, Feb. 16, 2014. Watson carded a 15-under-par 269, two strokes ahead of the second-place finisher. (

The Associated Press

Bubba Watson celebrates his birdie putt on the 18th green on his way to victory in the Northern Trust Open golf tournament at Riviera Country Club in the Pacific Palisades area of Los Angeles, Sunday, Feb. 16, 2014. Watson carded a 15-under-par 269, two strokes ahead of the second-place finisher. (AP Photo/Reed Saxon)

Bubba Watson celebrates his birdie putt on the 18th green on his way to victory in the Northern Trust Open golf tournament at Riviera Country Club in the Pacific Palisades area of Los Angeles, Sunday, Feb. 16, 2014. Watson carded a 15-under-par 269, two strokes ahead of the second-place finisher. (AP Photo/Reed Saxon) (The Associated Press)

His impressive, two-stroke victory over Dustin Johnson in the Northern Trust Open on Sunday, forged with a second straight 7-under-par 64, doesn’t change that, doesn’t complete the big picture.

Can Bubba act like a petulant child when things don’t go his way? Absolutely, as he showed two weeks ago by venting at his caddie, Ted Scott, in front of a few million for a supposed bad read on a putt at the 72nd hole in the Phoenix Open.

And the 2012 Masters winner was at his whiny worst again early in the final round at Riviera Country Club when he seemed to question Scott’s club call on the par-3 sixth. They went with 9-iron and the lefty pushed his tee shot into the left greenside bunker that is just short of pin high.

Of course, all was right with the world five minutes later when Watson holed out the bunker shot to seize a lead he didn’t relinquish.

At No. 9, Watson berated photographers who he believed fired their motor drives too soon. His hooked his tee shot badly, 30 yards to the right of the fairway. If there was a sound, it was milliseconds from contact.

“Who did that?” Watson demanded with a threatening scowl.

Then there is this Bubba: The man who carried his nearly 2-year-old adopted son up the steep stairs behind the 18th at Riviera, tears welling up in his eyes. He’d later show the same emotion in the media center.

“I can’t believe he’s running around and eating chocolate,” said Watson, so genuinely moved he forgot the second part of the question.

His golf game is equally all over the map. Winless since the Masters despite a handful of good chances over two years, Watson was the only guy on the leaderboard on Sunday to have made three double bogeys. Indeed, he started the tournament with two doubles in his first three holes.

But much like that mercurial other lefty, Phil Mickelson, Watson can reverse himself with stunning quickness. Watson earned his fifth career win because he shot 15-under over his last 43 holes, with not a single bogey along that stretch.

At Riviera, that is brilliant golf.

Nearly as amazing as hitting a 30-yard hook from the trees on the second playoff hole at Augusta to win your first green jacket.

Watson’s Masters victory made him wildly popular. He was seemingly the everyman dude with the folksy Southern accent, the first Augusta champion to park a “Dukes of Hazzard” General Lee car in his garage.

The guy uses a pink driver to raise money for a children’s hospital in Phoenix. What’s not to like?

Believe it or not, there are people on the inside of golf who aren’t big fans. They think Watson has thin skin and rabbit ears, and you know the saying about a person revealing his true self on the golf course? Some believe Watson has done so with his treatment of his caddie.

Remember, Phoenix wasn’t the first public airing out. Watson was similarly bratty at last year’s Travelers Championship when he hit a tee shot in the water while in contention. Scott took the brunt of his anger for the club selection.

Reaction: Either have your caddie give you yardages and reads or don’t. But you’re the athlete. It’s your career. Take credit when you’re great and responsibility when it doesn’t work out.

Yet, this was the same caddie who looked blissfully happy holding and tickling young Caleb Watson while daddy signed his winning scorecard on Sunday. It’s a working marriage. Scott obviously has made peace with it.

Sitting at a table, providing the winner’s signature for Northern Trust flags on Sunday evening, Watson explained of his up and down emotions: “When you have a rough day … it’s really not pouting. It’s how much focus do you really put on it. Sometimes we lose focus, we get frustrated and think the world’s going to end. We think our golf game isn’t good enough.”

It’s a forthright admission, probably to be appreciated in its own way. Watson also swears that he’s got a different attitude about golf.

"Me and my caddie are calling this the year of rejoicing,” Watson said.

If that is so, we'd like to see him walk the talk. More joy, less whine.